S.I.C.S.A., the Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals, ran out of microchips in less than an hour and had to get more to handle the huge crowd lined up with their dogs and cats for the special event held Saturday.

The center had budgeted 100 chips for the first two hours of the four-hour event that was held from noon to 4 p.m.

Many in line waited for more than an hour to have their pets embedded with a chip.

Deborah Durbin, Marketing Coordinator for SISCA said micro-chip identification is a an alternative way of identifying your dog or cat, if lost. The micro-chip is about the size of a grain of rice and implanted under the skin of a pet. Each microchip contains an identification number. A handheld scanner reads the radio frequency of the chip and displays this information, so the pet’s owners can be contacted.

There was a $10 cost per dog or cat.